For a second time, a Los Angeles City Council panel agreed today to break the city’s boycott of Arizona over the state’s law targeting illegal immigrants.

The council’s Trade, Commerce and Tourism Committee voted to extend for a year a contract for Arizona-based Blue Van Joint Venture, which operates SuperShuttle at LAX. The issue will be handed up to the full City Council for a final vote.

The City Council last month extended a contract for red-light cameras with American Traffic Solution of Scottsdale, though in May, the council voted to boycott Arizona businesses because member believe the immigration law is unconstitutional.

Harbor-area Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who chairs the council committee that approved the contract extension with Blue Van, said failing to extend the deal could cause financial harm to the city.

“We felt the spirit of the boycott of Arizona could still be preserved,” she said. “This company actually pays the airport $1 million a year. The boycott was about us not giving our taxpayer dollars to the state of Arizona. It was about banning travel to the state of Arizona.”

Before the decision was handed down, several immigration rights activists urged the committee to uphold the boycott.

“I commend you for that (economic boycott) — I think you’re leading the nation in rejecting the apartheid regime which will be implemented in less than a week in Arizona if not stayed by the courts,” Antonio Gonzales, president of the nonprofit William C. Velasquez Institute, told the committee.

“I think it’s very important that Los Angeles stand proud as the anti- Arizona, the counter-narrative that celebrates the inclusion of immigrants in our society and says `(SB 1070) is not fair and we’re not going to continue business as usual with the perpetrators of these policies that, in essence, create an immigrant apartheid South Africa style in our midst,”‘ he added.

But Hahn said allowing the contract to lapse would render several drivers jobless. Some of those drivers also attended the meeting to plead for the contract extension.

“When I saw the number of drivers — Latino drivers, African-American drivers, Pakistani drivers — clearly, these are drivers who live and work in Los Angeles,” Hahn said. “They spend their dollars here in Los Angeles, so on this instance, we recommended that we extend this contract for a year.”

Questions were raised over where the company was based. A document from the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners identified it as being in Torrance.

However, Hahn said the company has offices in Scottsdale. She added its corporate headquarters is in Illinois and it is owned by a French firm.

The council approved the economic boycott on May 12 after Arizona’s governor signed a law giving that state’s law enforcement personnel the power to check the immigration status of suspects who have been stopped for other reasons, if there is a reasonable suspicion they are in the country illegally. It specifically bars law enforcement from racial profiling.